Range Report Savage model 16, 7mm/08

Have finally obtained my components and started to test my new rifle. First impressions: The accu trigger is nice and needs no adjusting as it comes, the pull weight is just right but the stock is a little short for me as I am 6'+. I have my own rifle range with good benchrest so can have a shot when the mood takes me and it takes me fairly often. The accustock bedding set up seems less forgiving with regard to seating depth than my other hunting rifles. Rifle has a tendency to shoot 2 rounds touching and a 3rd one about 1" away from the other 2, a seating depth change of about 12 thou or .5 of a millimeter in my speak will put it on the money and the results are repeatable. 100g Sierra varmint pills shoot 3 shot groups of around .4" to .5" at 100yds 'now that the seating depth is established. 145g Speer Hot Cores are doing the same thing and I am hoping that with a little tuning they may shoot as well as the 100g Sierras. Would be very interested to hear from folks who have had experience with accu stocks as I am curious to find out if my experience is unique? Regards Murphy. ;D

What seating depth are you using? Distance off the lands or COAL measurement would be useful info for others trying to duplicate your results. Thanks.

To Warewolf, The seating depth that gave me 1/2" groups and better is C.O.L 65.5mm, and a mil is approximately 25 thou, touching the lands in my rifle with 100g Sierra hollow points is a col of 69mm so I am 3.5 mm, or about about 80thou off the lands. Load was 45g of 2206H with Rem 91/2 primer and Lapua 308 brass necked down to 7mm, pressure was mild in my rifle but my but my not be in yours. My rifle was tuned by seating depth alone with no powder ladder. First I found a load in the reloading manual that gave agreeable pressure, in my rifle, not too heavy ,not too light, then loaded up 4 batches of 3 rounds each. I started touching the lands and worked back in 1mm increments, with groups ranging from 2.2" touching lands to 1.2" at 66mm. The 1.2" group had that typical( For my rifle anyway, Accustock look about it with two rounds touching and the third one about an inch away). Next I decided to go deeper but in 1/2mm or 12thou increments, 64.5 mm once again gave an Accustock 1.1" group but 65.5mm gave a .4" group. Thought it might have been a fluke but when I retested if a few days later under slightly different conditions I got .5" 100yds so I am on the money. I tune all of rifles this way because it uses less components, occasionally I get stuck and go back to the powder ladder , but not often,hope this helps ;D.

FYI, a Millimeter is .03937 inches. ,5mm is correlated to just over .0196 inches. Not that it matters but for the sake of accurate dialog.....

25.4 mm per inch. So... if you had 51mm it would be roughly 2.007 inches.

LOL, you beat me to it Stangfish. We ehgineers can be picky about that stuff. ;D

El Lobo

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Originally Posted by ellobo

We ehgineers can be picky about that stuff.
El Lobo

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You didn't have to insult me! ;D.......... I just work on stuff made out of metal.

Any particular reason you are going with a 100g bullet in a 7-08? Reason I am asking is that I finally gave up on getting those to shoot worth beans in that caliber no matter what seating depth or powder I used. Went to a Nosler Ballistic Tip in 120g and they would shoot.

No insult intended brother Stangfish :-*. I work with metals too. Got the scars to prove it.

El Lobo

Thanks Boys for clearing up that millimeter busines, regardles of the measurement the principal is the same.Thanks for the tip on the Noslers WBM, bought the 100g sierras as varmint pills and the accuracy doesen't dissapoint once I got them going. I burned about 30 developing that load. Is your 7mm/08 an accustocked Savage? ;D

Have just about finalised my range testing of the Savage Model16 and I must say that this rifle has set a record for least time taken to tune. My worst one was a Kimber and that one took 2 years and thousands of components and I never did get it to shoot with any degree of consistency or accuracy. Have set the rifle up for 145g Speer Hot cores and they shoot around .5" for 3 shots at 100yds [41g H4895 Rem9 1/2 seating depth just kissing lands at 69mm C.O.L. 100g Sierra Varminters 45g H4895 Rem9 1/2 seating depth 65.5mm, accuracy for 3 three shot groups is about .4" average at 100yds. The interesting thing about the 100grainers is that I used 3 different bullet seating methods. First lot I full length sized the cases and seated the bullets normally, then went back over them with a Lee factory crimp die that come in the kit with the other dies, group size was .39" for 3 shots. Next I full length sized the cases and seated bullets in the normal manner and 3 shot group size was .5". Then I got once fired brass, just pushed the primers out and neck sized the cases with the factory crimp thingy, seated the bullets normally and went back over them with the factory crimper. Group size for this last batch was .3" The jury is still out as to weather this gadget really does anything, but all I can say is that groups that I shot with it were better than the the groups shot without it. For those who have not seen one they are a die with metal fingers inside of it that crimp in verticly rather than having to pull the neck over a mandril like in a regular reloading die. As to how do I like the rifle and caliber? I like it a lot but it could be very obnoxious when I used the wrong powder and wrong seating depth. I am not keen on the fact that the 100g Sierras shoot 9 3/4' higher than the 145s. A lot of my rifles that I have bedded myself, shoot light and heavy bullets to nearly the same point of impact. My feeling is that an Accustocked rifle is like "High stepping women and fast horses, maybe not for the average reloader." I can see the uniniated getting into a lot of accuracy trouble with this outfit, but then maybe I underestimate my fellow shooter. Hope my experiences help. Reguards Murphy ;D